The Hub — Restaurant in Bathurst

Oct 2022: When I go to Bathurst I have to remind myself that the price for breakfast varies from place to place. A big breakfast in Bathurst will set you back $33.90 with a surcharge for using your credit card (1.02%) and another if you happen to want to eat that breakfast on a Sunday morning (10%). With a base plate of bacon, toast and eggs ($20.90) also coming in over twenty bucks (before surcharges) it adds up, with two cups of coffee, to $73.97.

However it’s clear I’m the outlier as every table at The Hub Bathurst is quickly filled, and the plates are all heaving with food. We mow our way through softly scrambled eggs, thick-cut Trunkey Creek bacon, and well-caramelised sweet potato roesti that eat very nicely with their house-made tomato relish. There’s good bitterness (and fancy foam art) to be had from the locally roasted Fish River Roasters beans. Staff are friendly and efficient with good systems in place to handle the crowds. Heating and the aroma of wood fire makes the interior toasty and inviting on a chilly Bathurst morning.

Nov 2018: With a wide corrugated iron awning that extends over the Keppel Street pavement, a leafy green outdoor arbour, and a large shopfront window that drinks in the morning light, The Hub is a pleasant spot to dine.

It’s made all the more pleasant by the warm welcome from personable owner, Nancy Natoli, who is busily working her own floor. Natoli was a manager at The Hub for five years, before taking ownership of this popular Bathurst café in January of this year. She seats us in her popular front room, decorated with two beautiful pieces by Nicole Welch. Welch situates her art in significant Australian landscapes, taking chandeliers and other forms of illumination into bushland settings in NSW’s Central West. Welch also had an immersive video installation set over quartz rocks inside Tremains Mill during ArtState 2018, which was our reason for being in Bathurst in the first place.

Despite the fancy art, the furniture and feel of this café is more homely than hipster. The coffee beans are roasted locally by Fish River Roasters. They went okay in a Latte ($4.40) but benefited from the Extra Shot ($0.50) we added to our Flat White ($4.40). The menu, which feels extensive for a café, covers all your basics from banana bread to corn fritters. You'll also find contemporary cafe favourites running from huevos rancheros to buddha bowls. The only drawback to my eye is that it's pricy, with their big brekkie coming in at more than thirty bucks.

However what you do get here is a strong connection to local suppliers, and I'd hope that their prices indicate they're paying them properly for their artisan wares. The bacon is by Trunkey Creek Bacon & Pork, who have their smokehouse about fifty kilometres away in Trunkey Creek, and an outlet in Orange where you can purchase their stuff. We get reacquainted with it on a tasty plate of Scrambled Free Range Eggs ($16.90) served with the aforementioned smoky pig, toasted and buttered sourdough, and a pot of tomato relish, just adding on a side of Sriracha Hollandaise ($3).

The Sweet Potato Rosti ($22.90) is even better. From a white cube of chalky fetta, to Trunkey Creek’s mild chorizo, to the fat field mushroom, to the olive and rosemary sourdough, everything that comes on this plate is premium quality and delicious. I’m also a fan of getting toast (as well as rosti) to mop up the sriracha Hollandaise, and bright yellow traces of the perfectly poached, free range eggs.

After I scrape up every last morsel of my breakfast, I feel a bit more comfortable that The Hub’s higher prices seem justified in their diligent use of the region’s best produce. I even buy myself some Trunkey Creek bacon on my...

I visited The Hub in Bathurst recently, and I left with a handful of different feelings. I must compliment their coffee - it was a delightful brew that was both rich and robust. However, the pricing at The Hub seems a tad excessive, especially when considering the additional costs.

The practice of adding a 10 percent surcharge already places a strain on the wallet, but the decision to charge an additional separate transaction fee of over 1 percent - despite Tyro only charging 0.6 percent - felt somewhat underhanded. This left a bitter taste, not dissimilar to their otherwise delightful coffee.

Moving onto the food, my experience was sadly subpar. I ordered the Eggs Benedict, which on previous visits has always been well-executed. However, my most recent experience was disappointing. The portion size was paltry at best, leaving me hungry for more in the literal sense. Moreover, the toast was sadly overdone to the point of being burnt, which took away from the overall enjoyment of the meal.

That said, it wasn't all negative. The Hub's staff remain as fantastic as ever, always greeting with a smile and quick to provide service. Their cordial demeanor is indeed one of the more positive aspects of my visit.

In conclusion, while The Hub in Bathurst certainly has its shining points - namely their excellent coffee and commendable staff, there are areas where improvement is sorely needed, specifically pricing transparency and consistency in their food preparation. I usually enjoy my visits to The Hub, but this particular experience was unfortunately marred by a few issues. I genuinely hope they can iron out these kinks to provide a more consistent and enjoyable experience for all their customers.

Edit as after speaking to employees it seems most havnt had a raise in years so it would seem that the owner isn't being truthful about wage increases and just trying to pocket more money. Very...

We didn’t even get into the place. We stood there, watching numerous staff walk past for about 5 minutes. Not a single one acknowledged us with so much as a word, or even a smile. As we were about to leave someone came over. I had seen her walk past half a dozen times. I asked why it had taken so long to be acknowledged and she replied in a very gruff manner that they were very busy. I asked why we weren’t simply acknowledged by anyone with a word, a smile, or even eye contact. She said “Sorry! But we’re busy!”. I asked why someone couldn’t at least have said, we won’t be long, or anything. She replied very defensively, in an offhand manner, “We are very busy”. I simply looked at her and said, we’ll eat elsewhere, and we left. Given that they generally have good reviews, which is why we chose to eat here, I assume that there food is good, however, as a result of their poor customer service, we felt the need to go elsewhere. I don’t usually give bad reviews without entering a restaurant, but after thinking about it, not a single staff member had a smile when they were serving patrons, and as much as they were busy, it’s no excuse for the behaviour that...